{"id":15,"date":"2020-08-18T19:40:33","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T23:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/?page_id=15"},"modified":"2022-06-19T21:13:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T01:13:56","slug":"6-13-abolish-capital","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/6-13-abolish-capital\/","title":{"rendered":"6\/13 | Abolish Capital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D7qec77w4hE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">A Joint Session with the Institute for Social Research at Goethe-Universit\u00e4t Frankfurt<\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/martin-saar\/\">Professors Martin Saar<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/bernard-e-harcourt-host\/\">Bernard E. Harcourt<\/a>\u00a0discuss Pollock, Neumann, and Adorno on State Capitalism<\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">&amp;<\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">A performance by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartbeatopera.org\/\">Heartbeat Opera<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartbeatopera.org\/breathing-free\"><em>Breathing Free<\/em><\/a> with presentations by Filmmaker <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/anaiis-cisco\/\">Anaiis Cisco<\/a>, Director <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/ethan-heard\/\">Ethan Heard,<\/a> and Creative Producer <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/ras-dia\/\">Ras Dia<\/a><\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8E0drBiU_Xc\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Featuring the Oakdale Community Choir, KUJI Men&#8217;s Chorus, Hope Thru Harmony Women&#8217;s Choir, UBUNTU Men&#8217;s Chorus, and East Hill Singers<\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J_ipFPVLUS8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Readings:<strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<div class=\"gmail_default\">\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/files\/2020\/12\/State-Capitalism_Pollock-.pdf\">State Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations<\/a>&#8221; by Friedrich Pollock<\/h2>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><i>Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933\u20131944 <\/i>by Franz Neumann (<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/files\/2020\/08\/Neumann-Behemoth-Excerpt.pdf\">excerpts<\/a>)<\/h2>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/files\/2020\/12\/Late-Capitalism-or-Industrial-Society.pdf\">Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?<\/a>&#8221; by Theodor W. Adorno<\/h2>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>One Dimensional Man <\/em>by Herbert Marcuse (<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/files\/2020\/12\/Marcuse-One-Dimensional-Man-37-58.pdf\">excerpts<\/a>).<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Thursday, December 17, 2020<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">~~~<\/p>\n<p>In this session,\u00a0our seminar turns to the question of the abolition of capital and capitalism. Our challenge is to reimagine and resituate contemporary social movements for the abolition of capital within the framework of abolition democracy. We will do so through a close reading of the mid-century debate within the Frankfurt School over the history and transformations of Western capitalism.\u00a0In the process, we will discuss the abolition of feudal property relations and paradigm shifts in political economy. We will also discuss arguments <a href=\"https:\/\/harcourt.cooperation.law.columbia.edu\">for cooperation<\/a> as an alternative to capital.<\/p>\n<p>During World War II, several members of the Frankfurt School initiated a conversation over the changing nature of capitalism especially in Germany during Hitler\u2019s Third Reich and the rise of National Socialism. At the time, the new form of state-controlled totalitarian capitalism raised significant challenges to economic theories and histories\u2014whether they were neo-classical liberal theories of a <em>laissez-faire <\/em>government or Marxist theories of the inevitable crises of accumulation and demise of capitalist modes of production. A well-functioning centralized type of capitalism, involving state planning, defied most prevailing ideas about both capitalism and late capitalism.<\/p>\n<p>The sociologist and economist Friedrich Pollock (who founded with Felix Weil and served as director of the Institute for Social Research at various times), and the political and legal theorist, Franz Leopold Neumann, instigated a debate over competing analyses of National Socialism in Germany. Pollock offered an interpretation of National Socialism as a new form of \u201cstate capitalism\u201d and suggested the potential promise of democratically-controlled central planning, in an article titled \u201cState Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations,\u201d published in 1941. By contrast, Neumann developed a theory of National Socialism as an irremediable, irrational, and power-driven form of totalitarian monopoly capitalism on the model of Hobbes\u2019s lawless <em>Behemoth <\/em>(as opposed to Hobbes\u2019s orderly <em>Leviathan<\/em>), in his book <em>Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism<\/em>, published in 1942. Theodor Adorno would later weigh in on this debate, developing his own particular conception of \u201clate capitalism,\u201d in an essay titled \u201cLate Capitalism or Industrial Society?\u201d delivered to German sociologists in 1968 and in other writings. Herbert Marcuse as well, in his book <em>One-Dimensional Man<\/em> published in 1964, offered a related critique of administered living in the welfare state.<\/p>\n<p>By returning to this debate, and to this history, we hope to shed light on today\u2019s many movements for the abolition of capital\u2014ranging from recent writings on the creation of a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/5-13\/\">common<\/a>\u201d (including the work of Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/uk\/common-9781350021211\/\"><em>Common: On Revolution in the 21<sup>st<\/sup> Century<\/em><\/a>, and Michael Hardt and Toni Negri, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hup.harvard.edu\/catalog.php?isbn=9780674060289\"><em>Commonwealth<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/assembly-9780190677961?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;\"><em>Assembly<\/em><\/a>), recent work on the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/8-13\/\">idea of communism<\/a> (including the work of <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/etienne-balibar-communism-as-commitment-imagination-and-politics\/\">\u00c9tienne Balibar<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/slavoj-zizek-how-to-begin-from-the-beginning\/\">Slavoj \u017di\u017eek<\/a>), as well as recent proposals for a new form of co\u00f6perationism (including my work-in-progress titled <a href=\"https:\/\/harcourt.cooperation.law.columbia.edu\/\"><em>For Co\u00f6peration and the Abolition of Capital<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The session begins with a performance of two excerpts from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartbeatopera.org\/\">Heartbeat Opera<\/a>&#8216;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartbeatopera.org\/breathing-free\"><em>Breathing Free<\/em><\/a>: Anthony and Thulani Davis&#8217;s &#8220;I would not tell you what I know&#8221; from <em>X (The Life and Times of Malcom X)<\/em> performed by Derron Acon and the Breathing Free Band, and Beethoven&#8217;s \u201cO welche Lust\u201d (Prisoners\u2019 Chorus from FIDELIO ) performed by Oakdale Community Choir, KUJI Men&#8217;s Chorus, Hope Thru Harmony Women&#8217;s Choir, UBUNTU Men&#8217;s Chorus, and East Hill Singers. The performance is followed by a conversation with Filmmaker <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/anaiis-cisco\/\">Anaiis Cisco<\/a>, Director <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/ethan-heard\/\">Ethan Heard<\/a>, and Creative Producer <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/ras-dia\/\">Ras Dia<\/a>. The libretto and more information on the production can be found in the <em>Breathing Free<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/540e2853e4b00853b09fe0a4\/t\/5fcbe3199708706f39a8c4c8\/1607197483212\/Breathing+Free+Digital+Program.pdf\">digital program<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Welcome to Abolition Democracy 6\/13!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1620 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/files\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-20-at-7.52.05-PM-300x120.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"666\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/files\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-20-at-7.52.05-PM-300x120.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/files\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-20-at-7.52.05-PM-768x307.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/files\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-20-at-7.52.05-PM.png 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 666px) 100vw, 666px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ufeff A Joint Session with the Institute for Social Research at Goethe-Universit\u00e4t Frankfurt Professors Martin Saar\u00a0and Bernard E. Harcourt\u00a0discuss Pollock, Neumann, and Adorno on State Capitalism &amp; A performance by Heartbeat Opera of Breathing Free with presentations by Filmmaker Anaiis&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/6-13-abolish-capital\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1603,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-15","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1603"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}